Thanks for everyone's patience. Hope this chapter was worth the wait.
Chapter 9
"Klingons and Humans are automatically very similar, though there are some differences"
Why Dr Hallman felt obliged to tell them what they already knew was any ones guess, as she guided them past the tables bearing covered forms of bodies.
"Brak'lul is the main one, though there is also their ability to see in the UV spectrum and_"
"Doctor." Tessa interrupted, recognizing the impatience playing across both K'Rene's and Harry's face.
Dr Hallman shook herself slightly and continued.
"Klingons also react differently to phaser burns. The effect tends to be less,"
"Which is why they have traditionally used disruptors." Dr Brennan added. She might have said more, but Dr Hallman shot her a look.
"This ability can be transferred, like most Klingon genetics." She pulled the sheet away from B'Elanna's body. It was a mess. The only clue present that the body had once belonged to the Marquis engineer was the small ridges on the feet. Fighting the desire to throw up, Tessa leant over, examining the body.
"What happened?" she asked, sparing a glance at Chakotay and Harry. Chakotay's face was expressionless. At points it was easy to forget that before this, before Voyager, Chakotay had been in the Marquis. He would have seen this a thousand times.
Harry's hands stroked the phalanges of B'Elanna's right hand. K'Rene regarded the mess with no emotion.
"Initial thoughts were that she tried to shut down the slipstream, it exploded and killed her."
"The bones would seem to suggest that the body was thrown after death." K'Rene drawled. Dr Hallmond gritted her teeth.
"That was Dr Brennan's opinion." She said icily. "And that is true. However the burns show two distinct patterns." She called up the images on the screen. "These are plasma. You can see the hotspots." Tessa nodded, though she couldn't really.
"These ones however," Dr Hallmond continued, summoning another image up. "Were made by a disrupter. You can see the blackening around the edges of the wound."
She looked at her captain. "In other words, someone murdered B'Elanna Torres."
Tessa a gasped looked at her lover. The hardness of a Marquis captain was there.
"Meeting in twenty minutes." He said slowly. "K'Rene_"
"Contact The house of L'Naan and get their permission to hold on to the body."
As his gaze transferred to her, Tessa thought quickly,
"Profiles of the crew, and check the logs."
He nodded. "And Doctor..."
"Prelim autopsies. Try to determine if they got to anyone else."
Chakotay nodded. At points he hated how well he'd trained his crew.
"Lu'" K'Rene said softly, "Qapla!" she sighed off.
"They agree to let us hold the body then?" Harry asked.
"Doesn't your culture hold that listening to the conversation of another is rude?" K'Rene asked, walking through.
"And doesn't your culture view it as rude to speak so that another cannot hear?"
"Touché." K'Rene said, smiling. "Yes, they agreed. The body is nothing to do with them really. They simply wish to show it to B'Elanna's mother, to convince her that her daughter is dead. After that they couldn't really care what we do with the body. They will meet with us in forty hours."
"But the body was to be shipped home for burial." Harry said. He remembered the notes displayed above the body.
K'Rene nodded. "To her father. I just gave my word I would contact him." she regarded Harry uncertainly. "How are you?"
Harry shrugged. "I've gone from been fully responsible for the destruction of Voyager to partly responsible."
"How do you figure that?" K'Rene asked. Harry shrugged.
"If I hadn't insisted on the slipstream drive, the guy couldn't have pulled it off."
"He would have done it at some other point. Traitors...simply wait."
Her fingers stroked the scars on her arms, where the plasma had burned her. Harry gazed up at her.
"Did you..." he struggled for words, "ever wonder why? Ever ask Kahless, or who ever why you survived?"
K'Rene nodded. "Every day. I wonder why out of all the members of the crew who he must have passed who were injured why it was me that Kor that grabbed and shoved in that environmental suit. And," she added. "Why he eventually cut off his air supply to save me." She shrugged. "I...I still wonder, but I accept that I may never know. I am merely grateful that I did."
"I wasn't." Harry admitted. "You've no idea how many times I've wished I was buried under ice with them."
K'Rene nodded.
"I...I hated myself." He sighed. "That's what's been keeping me going. Trying to fix my mistake." He turned to face her. "Now it turns out that it might not be mine, and I...I don't know what that means. For the future."
K'Rene shrugged. "Quite simple." She said, softly. "You live. You save others. Same as the rest of us. Oh. And one more thing."
"What?" Harry asked. K'Rene opened a door and extracted the crucifix that had been found in his quarters in Voyager.
"You thank your god, for your life."
Harry sighed. "You want something to eat?"
K'Rene nodded softly. She then turned her attention back to the screen, on which she had uploaded all the information from the internal sensors on Voyager.
She knew the information was there, she just wasn't sure. Wait. That person shouldn't have been there.
Carefully she reached out and touched her communicator. "K'Rene to Captain Chakotay."
"Chakotay here." The voice sounded dull and expressionless, but she was sure she could change that.
"Please ask all senior staff to report to Security. There's something you have to..."
Too late she realized that the soft hiss of the opening door wasn't from Harry. She hit the floor with a soft thud.
TBC
